October 15th

This week we're keeping the roundup tightly focused on the 10/10/10 Global Work Parties. Unfortunately the mainstream media largely decided to ignore the event. And can you blame them? Hundreds of thousands of people in 188 countries and all 50 states organized and attended more than 7,300 events in what amounted to the largest climate grassroots mobilization in history -- that's all. Really, how is that news?

Snarkasm aside, clearly it's up to us as a movement to tell this story. Which is why we've been collecting pics and stories of 10/10/10 events from our organizers and supporters all week -- and they've been pouring nonstop. You can enjoy the eye candy neatly compiled in this slideshow, but below are some stories and pics we wanted to highlight.

1Sky NC focused around the Raleigh area (commonly known as the Triangle) at six sites: East Raleigh, South Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, Wendell , and Louisburg. At each location folks gathered for a potluck lunch featuring local foods and then went to work side by side seeding, weeding, or harvesting at a local Community Garden or an Organic Farm. We picked this action because, in dealing with the climate crisis, we have to rethink the way we produce food on the planet -- moving away from industrial agriculture powered by fossil fuels, and towards small-scale, local, organic farming. Food is part of the problem but it is also part of the solution.

What does the date 10.10.10 signify? To some merely a symmetrical date of repeating numbers; to others a very lucky and auspicious date to hold weddings and cultural events.

For hundreds of thousands of people at 7,347 events organized in 188 countries, 10.10.10 was 350.org’s Global Work Party to get to work seeking solutions to the climate crisis. Citizens from nearly every country in the world joined together to dig at local farms and community gardens, install solar panels, plant trees and carry out other community-improving and energy-conserving projects. These actions were meant to send a clear message to our political leaders: “if we can get to work, so can you!”

SACE staff and members were involved in numerous projects throughout the Southeast including community garden projects in Oxford, MS and the Raleigh-Durham region in NC. Through 1Sky Florida, a joint project of SACE and 1Sky, we helped to coordinate or support numerous projects in Florida, including a tree-planting project on the campus of the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, FL.

The contrast was stark: A global movement demanding that their leaders get serious about climate change and building a clean energy future, while the President of the United States sends a very public signal that it's back to business as usual -- essentially an endorsement of the dirty energy sources that have us over the climate barrel.

There's no denying that President Obama has accomplished a lot on climate in two short years, including his recent decisions to put solar on the White House next spring and the approval of two major solar power installations in the Southwest. But when the President abruptly reverses one of his most visible responses to the BP oil disaster just three weeks before Election Day, it's no wonder the American people are confused about the urgency of the climate crisis and the need to transition to clean energy sources immediately. They look to the President for leadership -- and right now, they're getting very mixed signals.

It's no mystery who's behind this decision. Big Oil, Dirty Coal, and their allies have spent more than $990 million to influence the current Congress and to elect a whole slate of climate deniers and shills for big polluters this November. Monday's announcement of the lifting of the moratorium is yet another example of just how hard these dirty fuel companies are leaning on our leaders and why we need to push back.

In the face of this Administration's climate schizophrenia, the 10/10/10 Global Work Parties were a critical reminder to our leaders in Washington that the climate movement is alive, growing, and ready to keep fighting. Hundreds of thousands of people attended at least 7,347 events in 188 countries and all 50 states -- the largest climate grassroots day of action in history. One day of action won't solve the climate crisis, but on 10/10/10, we showed our leaders that Big Oil and Dirty Coal are not the only game in town.

The 10/10/10 Global Work Parties were just the start of a movement-wide push on President Obama to fulfil his promises to the international community in Cancún during COP16 this fall -- even as we support him when he comes through on climate, as when he decided to put solar on the White House. But more importantly, we'll keep pushing him to provide the American people with clear, consistent leadership on climate and energy. When it comes to climate, this one-step-forward, two-steps-back approach just won't do.

October 13th

This week, thousands of people across the globe got to work for 350.org's 10/10/10 Global Work Party. Even President Barack Obama stepped up and joined the fun, committing to install solar panels on the White House roof next spring. Despite the groundswell of grassroots support for "getting to work," dirty money continues to have an unprecedented influence on the midterm elections.

Congressional Timeline:

11/2: Election Day

11/15: Congress resumes (tentative)

Solar on the White House

The Obama Administration made an important symbolic gesture last week by announcing plans to install solar panels on the White House in the spring of 2011. Energy Secretary Steven Chu told an audience of federal employees: "Around the world, the White House is a symbol of freedom and democracy. It should also be a symbol of America's commitment to a clean energy future."

In addition to approving new solar installations, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar signed the final lease approving the 468 MW Cape Wind project, the nation's first offshore wind installation, off the coast of Massachusetts.

10/10/10 Global Work Parties

This weekend, climate advocates worldwide gathered together and held "work parties" to celebrate climate solutions and send our political leaders a simple message: "We're getting to work—what about you?" All told, there were 7,500 events in 185 countries, including approximately 2,000 U.S. events in all 50 states. Events were attended by elected officials who pledged to "get to work."

We'll have much more about the hugely successful 10/10/10 Global Work Parties, but for now just sit back and enjoy the climate action eye candy we've been receiving since Saturday. Be sure to share them on Facebook, Twitter and any other social networks using our handy "share" bar on this page.

Students helped Community Forklift, a surplus, salvage, and green building material provider outside Washington, DC, to sort, organe, and clean their warehouse. Forklift Outreach and Education Director Ruthie Mundell and the university's program director, Professor James Riker, set up the party to discuss the Forklift's business model with students and to show them how their work efforts symbolized the push for clean energy solutions. Riker said his students spent the week discussing these issues and watched The Age of Stupid in class before starting their work party, getting them "beyond the classroom" and into the movement. Here are some pictures from that event:

October 8th

By 1Sky blogger Andy Silber. See Andy's bio at the end of this post. -- Luis

Andy Silber is a astrophysicist, engineer, project manager, husband, father, and energy activist living in Seattle. Visit Andy's blog on Sustainable West Seattle. The author's opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the 1Sky campaign.

October 6th

Mountaintop removal mining in the Appalachian region is one of the most ecologically destructive activities being undertaken to meet our domestic energy needs. To understand the devastation, you need to first get a picture of the process of the destruction.

Before mountaintop mining begins, forests are logged off the mountain. Then the overburden (organic material, topsoil, and bedrock to the depth of the coal seam) is removed. Mining companies had difficulty in disposing of this "mining waste," so in 2002 the Bush administration decided to allow them to dump the overburden in adjacent forest streams.

Just one mountaintop removal mine can lay bare up to 10 square miles and pour hundreds of millions of tons of waste material into as many as a dozen "valley fills" -- some of which are 1,000 feet wide and a mile long.

And if that’s not bad enough, the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act allows mining companies to restore MTR sites in grass -- which means that it will take thousands of years for forest to develop again, and the Appalachian temperate forest ecosystem is gone forever. Filled streams are no longer streams. They are ditches or culverts, their ecological function gone forever.

Janelle Corn, Ph.D., is an ecologist and wildlife biologist living in western Montana. She has lived and worked in the western U.S. for 30 years, and is currently an activist for addressing climate change before it's too late. Her new blog is Natural History Now. The author's opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the 1Sky campaign.

October 5th

The most famous residence in America, which has already boosted its green credentials by planting a garden, plans to install solar panels atop the White House's living quarters. The solar panels are to be installed by spring 2011, and will heat water for the first family and supply some electricity.

The plans will be formally announced later Tuesday by White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley and Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

The White House did the right thing, and for the right reasons: they listened to the Americans who asked for solar on their roof, and they listened to the scientists and engineers who told them this is the path to the future...If it has anything like the effect of the White House garden, it could be a trigger for a wave of solar installations across the country and around the world."

"Putting solar on the roof of the nation's most important real estate is a powerful symbol calling on all Americans to rethink how we generate electricity," Solar Energy Industries Association President Rhone Resch said.

This is a great way to start the final week before the worldwide 10/10/10 Global Work Parties on Sunday. And on a personal note, I'd like to thank President Obama and the AP for giving me the flimsiest of excuses to include a Beatles song with this post:

October 4th

Last week, President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DOT) announced their intent to set progressively stronger efficiency standards for new cars: 47-62 mpg by 2025. Congress wrapped up its pre-election business promptly to allow members to return home and campaign.

Congressional Timeline:

11/2: Election Day

11/15: Beginning of Senate Lame Duck session (tentative)

Obama Administration proposes another strong cars rule

In spring of 2009, President Obama worked with automakers to push for 35.5 mpg standards by 2016, and is now beginning a second rulemaking process that will set even stronger standards for new vehicles: 47-62 mpg by 2025, which represents a 3-6% annual improvement beyond the existing 2016 standards. This announcement represents a stage of administrative rulemaking called a "Notice of Intent" (NOI), essentially a draft rule made public to allow stakeholders to weigh in. The final rule will not be finalized until July of 2012.

Our allies at Environment America, Sierra Club, and other groups are advocating for a 60 mpg standard. According to the EPA, a 62 mpg standard is doable if much of the new fleet is made up of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.